Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

by Neil Postman

book data

438 ratings, 3.76 average rating, 65 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		41%
3		25%
2		7%
1		2%

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published

March 31st 1993 by Vintage (first published 1991)

details

Paperback, 240 pages

isbn

0679745408 (isbn13: 9780679745402)

description

Neil Postman is one of the most level-headed analysts of education, media, and technology, and in this book he spells out the increasing dependence u…more

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Jul 18, 2007

Dan rated it:

Read in March, 2003

recommends it for: luddites, alll manner of loud mouthed anti-technology malcontents

This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. Specifically, this book is about how Technology negatively affects our society and culture. Postman is very one sided and hardly even pays lip service to any contradictory interpretations than his own.

I read this book very quickly, in one sitting, finishing the book in an afternoon. I don't remember his whole argument. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was...more

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Mar 10, 2007

Mehdi Ebrahimi rated it:

Read in April, 2003

The book is about the phylosophy of tecnology and has fresh ideas about the education program. It criticizes the trends in technology and science and warns that it may cause many harms to our world and human being. Many people believe that Postman was(he passed away)a radical critique. I think sometimes we need some radical ideas to moderate a trend and Postman successfully achieved this goal in the book.
He tries to change your mind radically an you may resist. But it is worth reading.

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Aug 09, 2007

Sara rated it:

This book is interesting, to say the least. Since this book was written a while ago, it is interesting to see what predictions seem to be taking place and which are utter crap. I give it such a high rating because I am a firm believer that it is important that we keep a skeptical eye raised at our new technologies, when we bring them in with enthusiasm. It is not very realistic, but it makes you think.

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Oct 03, 2009

Nathanael rated it:

Read in October, 2009

Technopoly tells us that technology has an inherent viewpoint, a 'take' on reality. That's obvious. More unsettling is that Postman argues we adopt the viewpoint of the technology we use. For example, by naively citing social science we adopt Scientism--a scarily amoral view of reality. Postman's Technopoly is a negative description of modern American society--wholly taken into technological development, wholly sapped of social mores and the traditions that uphold them. Religion and liberal educ...more

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May 28, 2007

Beth B. rated it:

Read in January, 2000

Another book about the danger of trusting too fully in technology. Postman's argument encourages us to keep those low-tech ideas and solutions that still work (better) and view technology with reason, looking for that which truly benefits us as humans, rather than embracing technology that degrades us. (For similar writing, read Wendell Berry also.)

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Jun 04, 2008

Rob rated it:

Read in September, 2007

This is my favorite Postman book so far. It was thought provoking to the point that it makes me question the use of the 5 star system on this site. I liked the scope of this book more than that of Amusing Ourselves To Death. There was more emphasis on our cultural ideologies and less on imagined historical ideals.

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Jun 15, 2009

Kevin rated it:

Read in April, 2009

How ironic it seems to me, that here I sit ignoring just about all the lessons of this book as I give Technopoly, the treatise by Neal Postman, an arbitrary rating of four or five stars. Of what use is the information in a star rating to anyone? Bloody none. What is this star rating, then? It's nonsense and noise, the same sort of nonsense and noise that we call data, or news; true or false, we have no choice but to accept it.
Postman turns a skeptic eye here to our notions of progress, obs...more

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Aug 01, 2007

Maura rated it:

Will make you reassess the role that technology should play in our lives and whether or not we truly have control over it.

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Sep 13, 2008

Emma rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Neil Postman was, apparently, a big deal. Upon starting his 1992 book Technopoly I learned that he had died in 2003, which makes the negative parts of this review feel vaguely like I'm speaking ill of the dead. Sorry, Mr. Postman.

Anyway, Technopoly takes the idea behind Aldous Huxley's dystopic novel Brave New World very seriously. Unlike 1984, Huxley's novel imagined a world where we are ruined by what we love, not what we fear. (This idea crops up again in Scott Westerfeld's novel ...more Neil Postman was, apparently, a big deal. Upon starting his 1992 book Technopoly I learned that he had died in 2003, which makes the negative parts of this review feel vaguely like I'm speaking ill of the dead. Sorry, Mr. Postman.

Anyway, Technopoly takes the idea behind Aldous Huxley's dystopic novel Brave New World very seriously. Unlike 1984, Huxley's novel imagined a world where we are ruined by what we love, not what we fear. (This idea crops up again in Scott Westerfeld's novel Uglies to some extent--Huxley was also apparently a big deal.)

What did everyone love in 1992? Technology. Postman fears that as cultures embrace technology more and more readily, they would lose something of themselves. Specifically, in an era that Postman coincidentally calls "Technopoly," people will begin to depend on technology for everything. Problems will be created to be fixed with technology. Faced with an information glut, people will revere data sorting software despite its ostensibly doing nothing of actual use.

I don't know if Postman would agree with me here, but Technopoly seems to be about how to deal with (and resist) a world where computers are becoming more human while humans become more tied to machines than ever before.

While this book was interesting, and likely important, I couldn't take it completely seriously. Postman's use of self-made terms like "technocracy" and "technopoly" made it impossible for me to read the text seriously. Postman's moralistic warnings against technology's dangers also seemed very close to a doomsday scenario. And somewhat one sided.

An entire chapter is dedicated to medical technology. It details the dangers of a technological medial profession: more surgeries and relying on machines for diagnosis. But he almost completely ignores the technological miracles like incubators, which almost exclusively save lives. This one-sided look at technology would be fine, if Postman had not started his book with a drawnout summary of a story about an Egyptian king named Thamus who was famous for looking at a matter from all sides.

There is value Technopoly, particularly when Postman warns of the information glut inherent to a Technopoly culture where computers are so dedicated to producing data. And yet, being in school to become an information professional, I can't help but think we're still smarter than computers. We create all of this information, but there are still discerning information-controllers like teachers and librarians who will maintain the order.

Maybe one day the doomsday Postman seemed to be anticipating in this book will come to pass. But I don't think it will be today or even tomorrow.(less)

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2 comments

Jul 30, 2007

M rated it:

Read in January, 2007

A great read for those that hate technology or at least are suspicious of it. However the conclusions in the last chapter are weak.

Technopoly is totalitarian Technocracy. Technology remains powerful whilst all other ideologies have weakened. Invisible technology is a powerful and subversive force with an ideological bias that does not necessarily have humanity as its priority. Technology is the main cultural force. Ideas are embedded in computers (within the medium).

...more

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Jun 13, 2008

Ruth rated it:

Read in June, 2008

I found this book on my shelf and realized I had only read half of it about 15 year ago, and, obsessive/compulsive person that I am, felt the need to read the whole thing again. It was written in 93, I think, before the internet really exploded, and it is a critique of our unthinking subservience to technology. I can tell from my notes in the margins that I was really excited about this book in 1993 but this time I found it kind of irrationally nostalgic in a lot of places. I mostly agree wit...more

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May 26, 2007

james kyong rated it:

Read in June, 2007

Neil Postman is pretty much the man. I would be convinced that he is the Messiah himself if it were not for the Jesus guy.

Just kidding. Really. But Postman's ideas are so subversive and resonate hugely with the things that I have been thinking about lately. Postman says America is the only real Technopoly, in which our cultures and traditions and subject to technology and are replaced by information glut. We think our culture is hewn out of techonological progress. This unbridled opt...more

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Jul 21, 2009

Thaddeus Wert rated it:

One of the five most influential books I have ever read. The overarching lesson I learned is that every technology has a bias. The difficulty lies in determining what that bias might be, and what the consequences of that bias are. When I first read it, the internet did not exist. Even so, it is more relevant today.

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Mar 21, 2009

Poiema rated it:

Read in January, 2007

If you've read other Neil Postman books, this one will be somewhat redundant. I think he makes his point best in _Amusing Ourselves to Death_, and if I were to recommend just one of Postman's books, that would be the place to start. This one is not without merit, however.

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Apr 20, 2008

Sandra rated it:

Read in August, 2007

Although this book was written in the early 90's it's message is still if not even more appropriate today. Postman follows the history and emergence of technology in our lives. I wouldn't say he's a Luddite and that he hates technology. This book is meant more as a call for society to be critical and detached from technology. The technopoly for which this book is titled is described as a state of culture in which there is a deification of technology.

I've definitely taken Postman'...more

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Jun 10, 2009

Jordan rated it:

I disagree with many of Postman's points but I like the way he writes and I share his general concern. We arrive in the same land by different routes. Einstein said it well, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

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May 05, 2009

Ian rated it:

This is not necessarily an angry attack on technology, but a great survey of how it shapes our lives and our thinking, often without us knowing it...to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail...

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